NASA gets $19.285B in the FY16 budget, nearly $750M above request, includes $1.2438B for Commercial Crew

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Science is the big winner today as NASA will receive $19.285 billion dollars for the 2016 fiscal year, an increase in $750 million than what NASA originally requested, per the 2016 federal spending bill released by the House and Senate on December 16 of this year.

This amount is a huge increase from what NASA originally requested and will help fund many new and innovative projects to come. One of the bigger projects to get excited about is a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, which is proposed to include an orbiter and a lander.

The announcement of this increase in funding is a step in the right direction as NASA's budget has only seemingly gone down over the past few decades.

September 12, 1962 was NASA's first trip to the moon and the increase in funding through the middle 1960's is what sparked Americans to first walk on the moon on July 20, 1969 with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first stepping foot on the lunar surface for 6 hours that day.

Not only was this great for science, It was something that hit a nerve in our country and got everyone excited in exploring the final frontier. Now, we can rejoice in knowing that NASA is back on track and is being properly funded. It's pleasant knowing that your tax dollars are actually going for a cause that you believe in.

Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) helped lead the charge in this fight of bringing more funding to NASA and has been one of the most active senators with NASA throughout the previous years.

Image: SpaceNews

Breakdown of NASA's 2016 Spending Bill

• NASA's Space Launch System is the big winner of the federal bill and NASA has received almost double what they originally requested. This spending will be used in the technology of the heavy-lift launch vehicle used in future space missions.
  
  
• Congress directed that NASA spend not less than $85 million of the Space Launch System funding directly on the upper stage that NASA will use in it's first crewed SLS mission and future missions.
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• The Planetary Science Program is also a big winner. They are receiving $270 million more than originally requested.
  
  


• This bill set in place for not less than $55 million to be spent on an habitat augmentation module with the final goal of having the prototype complete by the year 2018.
  
  
• For more information, Check out the "NASA Fiscal Year 2016 budget" above.

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A breakdown of NASA 2016 Fiscal Year budget.